Puzikova S.M.,
Doctor of Education,
Professor
General and Ethnic
Education Department
al-Farabi KazNU
IMPROVEMENT OF
SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION (SOME SUGGESTIONS FROM LEARNING
PROCESS PARTICIPANTS)
Academician
S.P. Korolev once stated that "if you did something quickly, but badly,
everyone will forget that you you've done it quickly, but will remember that
you have done it badly" [1, p.7]. These words, as ever, are relevant in
the modern era, the age of information, where each subsequent stage of society
development becomes 3-4 times shorter than the previous one; theflight of time
is accelerating, and thereforemaking wrong decisions becomes unsafe for the
future.
Self-directed
work in the educational process allows to developindividual’s ability to
quickly make creative decisions in unconventional circumstances. Productively
organized self-directed work is now an important mechanism for the development
of creative potential of every individual and a real reserve in implementation
of continuing educationparadigm.
Improvement
of self-directed work is closely related to and determined by a rapid pace of
computer technologydevelopment, in connection with which the question
ofitsthoughtful, not mechanical implementation in the learning process emerges
full blown. Our life has beensmoothly entered by social media (blogs,
wiki-technologies, audio, video services, microblogs (Twitter), social
networks, e-mail, chatrooms, etc., to be fully used in the organization of all
known forms of self-directed work (however, without absolute priority given to
the role of telecommunications in training).
How to use
these technical novelties with the most, even valeological, effect, given
peculiar characteristics of a specific audience? In pursuit of innovation,
social researches can provide indispensable help to a practicing teacher, as
they are, being a “feedback”, allow one to adjust the forms and methods of
work, taking into account the aggregate of motivating factors in training, and
to bring closer and join the research and practice. Through sociological
surveys among students a teacher quickly gets a lot of creative
and“integrative” ideas; some of them we will discuss in this article.
In November
2014 I conducted a survey amongMaster’s degree studentsof the 1stcoursefrom
several departments (Philosophy and Political Science, Mechanics and
Mathematics, and Department of Law) of Kazakhstan's leading university -
al-Farabi Kazakh National University. 62 respondents were interviewed.
Analysis of
their responses revealed some interesting ideas that combine innovative and
traditional forms of self-directed learning. Thus, a third of the respondents
(33%) were in favor of making traditional forms of self-learning into actual
practical classes, using group discussions, disputes and team games. Master’s
degree students (especially among non-humanity specialties)believe that we need
to increase the number of classroom and practical classes and to closely relate
self-directed work with the industry-specific enterprises, practical
production, and to turn CPM (independent work of a Master’s course student)
into working with employers. Respondents have also noted that the group work,
rather than individual work, increases motivation factor and mutual
intellectual activity, enhances the effectiveness of cognitive activity,
through mutual control. Therefore, respondents believe the presence of a team
to be the main condition for the effective conduct of independent work in a
social group - 25%. It was also noted that self-directed learning is more
effective if it is conducted in a "pair"; that is distributed to
pairs of participants - 41,7%.
Respondents
suggest that they could practice more often analysis of contemporary scientific
literature, its collective discussion and comparative analysis of various
sources,as a relevant form of self-directed learning -11.3%. Master’s course
students also spoke in favor of wider practice of the work with primary
sources, noting that the majority of students still obtain all the information
from the Internet –it is like a "chewed gum" that has nothing to do
with self-directed learning - 35, 5%.
Instead of
a traditional preparation of an essay or a report on a topical issue, Master’s
course students believed it was possible to replace this type of work with the
writing of a scientific paper with subsequent review by a teacher. In this case
the best works of students should be awarded by free publication in a
scientific journal of the school - UniversityHerald, and its author could claim
the reward in the form of advantageous employment for a specific company, upon
recommendation of the university. Surveyparticipants pointed to the need
toadopt the experience of the education system in the USSR, where “the best
students were employed by the best companies” - 8.1%.
Master’s
course students also suggested thatself-directed work with a teacher could be
turned into workshops with foreign universities, into communication over the
Internet with the students from other universities (for similar disciplines),
and into teleconferences, where experience and relevant information could be
exchanged – 6.45%. This format could be used to also carry out mutual
assessment of the work of students from various universities. Evaluation
results would be sent to email address and addresses of the universities, and
to individual e-mail addresses - 11.3%. Experience has shown that mutual
assessment of the students is quite effective; it results in self-assessment of
the work, i.e., it automatically develops the skills of self-directedlearning.
Feedback obtained in this way allows astudent to obtain information quickly and
often to a greater extent than when his/her work is being reviewed by a
teacher. In addition, not only the person that receives feedback is learning,
but the person giving it learns, too [2, p.142].
Of interest
is the proposal for the Master’s degree students to create their own movie
based on a particular problem situation, as a form of the self-directed work,
where it will showhow the situation is resolved. At the same time they
emphasized the paramount importance of visualization of contemporary issues
through this particular method.
Master’s
degree students suggest rather interesting forms of incentives for the quality
and conscientious performance of self-directed work.
First
of all, it is recording the progress through social network, the Internet;
making top rating every week – “The best independent works of the university”;
organization of competitions under the same slogan, organization of get-togetherevening
of teachers with the best master’s course students, etc.
Secondly,
financial incentives of the master’s course students in the form of Gift
vouchers for the purchase of outstanding and expensive scientific publications,
as well as granting bonus points for current classes (although some respondents
were adamantly against it, explaining: “I do not want to study for points”).
Third,
which is not new but for many Master’s course students the most important
incentive would be a genuine public praise by a teacher in their current class
(87, 1%).
It seems
that these suggestionsare worth considering, and possibly can be used at almost
any stage of educational process.
Bibliography:
1.
Sadovnichy
V. Education as a safety factor in Russia // Alma Mater. Bulletin of the higher
education institution. - 1998. - ¹ 3. - pp. 3-8
2.
Bogolepova
S.V. Self- and peer assessment techniques as a tool in the development of
students’ independence // Materialsfrom the reports of II All-Russian
scientific and practical Internet conference “Organization of students’
self-directed work” (December 6-9 2013) - Saratov: “New Project” Publishers,
2013. –p.188.